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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Chap. Copyright No. 

ShelL 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE IvLOND 1 kKoCT251897 

GOLD Fret 



Their Discovery, Development, 
and Future Possibilities, 



PRACTICAL INFORMATION 



ON GOLD IVriNING, 

HOW TO GET THERE, 

>A('HA.T TO CA.RRV, 

WHAT TO DO. 



■ALSO- 



UTMTQ °^ Vali-ie to Prospectors, 
nilXlO Traders and Investors. 



CHARLES ALEXANDER PLEMPEL. 



>-> 



ILLUSTRATKD BY ^_^ 'V / 

ISAAC B. BE ALES. 'JA^Ij^b ' 



THE MARYLAND PUBLISHING COMl'ANY, 
BALTIMORE, MD. 



c 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER. 

Introductory, I 

Al,ASKA, II 

Gold Mining, Ill 

Canada's Rights, IV 

How to Get There — What to Carry — 

What to do, V 

Enterprises, VI 

Tailinp ,, VII 






" That book in many's eyes doth share the glory, 
That in gold clasps locks in the gol(''.en story." 

Shaks.: liomeo and Juliet, 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S97, by 

THE MARYI,AND PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
In the oflSce of tlje Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C 



/- fS-TsQ-Kl 



THE one magic word which has, per- 
haps, been spoken, written and 

printed, more than any other, 
Introductory. during the past few weeks, is 

Klondyke. I retain the spelling 
of the word in the form given because I believe it to be 
strictly accurate, although many newspapers, doubtless 
well informed, have departed from the first rendering 
and have substituted the letter "I" for the letter "Y," 
a matter of little moment, indeed, but one which may 
yet give rise to controversy, as the name, itself, bids 
fair to take a leading place in future history and to 
become even more celebrated than that of California. 
As a matter of simple fact, it is as well to observe, the 
original name of the now notorious river and district 
was spelt "Thron dak," or "duick," a word of Indian 
origin, which means, "plenty of fish." To r'-^.ose who 
are acquainted with gold-bearing strata in variuus parts 
of the world, and who make it their business to obtain 
information in regard to new mineral discoveries, the 
fact has been well known for many years that the 
immense territory, bordering on the Arctic Circle and 
extendin^: on the East into British Columbia and on the 
West and South into Alaska, contains deposits of gold 
of incalculable value. 

The excitement, however, which very naturally 
followed the more recent disclosures regarding wealth, 
easily and quickly obtained from the placer deposits in 
the Klondyke River, brought, in its train, a desire for 
possessio:i ; with the result that, in consequence of the 
publicity given to the subject through the Press, 
scarcely a man, a woman, or a child, in even the most 
remote hamlet in the United States, is unacquainted 
with the fact that a new Eldorado exists in the frozen 



4 THE KLONDYKE GOLD FIELDS, 

and inhospitable North, and that it is open to every able 
bodied man — and perhaps woman — to seek the field of 
adventure and endeavor to wring from nature's secret 
treasure house that wealth for which all are striving, 
but to win which is denied to the great majority of 
mankind. 

The space available in this little work renders it 
impracticable to enter into an exhaustive dissertation on 
LUCK. Many philosophers aver that the word has no 

meaning — i. e., that luck, in an 
abstract sense, does not exist. 
Let those who think thus try 
gold mining. Then they may 
be converted tc the theory that 
Izick is a power in the lives of 
men— and women — which, like 
an overwhelming flood pouring 
_ from a broken dam, will carry 
'^ .» some to the highest pinnacle of 
success, and will sweep others — 
the majority — into those troubled waters which drown 
so many heroic efforts and leave upon memory the 
burden of a record of a life's atter and complete failure. 
This will be shown in the unwritten history of the ^ 
Klondyke. Fortune to a few— despair and death to the 
many. It was always so, and history invariably repeats 

itself. 

But if the tens of thousands of treasure seekers, 
who will, by some means, and within a comparatively 
short period, make their way into the new northern 
Eldorado, knew each and individually that his chances 
of success were utterly forlorn and hopeless, the spirit 
of adventure and the greed for gold would overcome 
every measure of caution and every instinct of fear, and 
not one would be deterred from trusting to that most 
fickle goddess of fortune, named luck, for a happy 
outcome and a profitable result. Knowing, therefore, 
the sentiments that so widely— it may be said^ so 
universally— prevail, I should entirely fail in the object 
which prompts the preparation of these few pages were 




INTRO D UCTOR Y. 5 

I to paint the golden horizon in such sombre colors as 
to freeze the heroism and to lessen the self-sacrifice 
which must inspire every gold seeker if he is to have 
the most remote chance of ultimate success. Naturally, 
my best and kindest wishes will accompany every 
reader of this little work who may set forth upon the 
hunt for gold ; and it will be my aim, in the following 
pages, to shed some light upon the pathway of those 
who abandon home for scenes which, to the many, are 
at present unimaginable ; while others, who merely 
peruse these lines for information or amusement will, I 
hope, find nothing they may unduly criticize. There is 
yet another class of readers to whom a few pages will be 
expressly devoted. They are the seekers for wealth 
through the medium of investment ; and as the gold 
fever is rampant and epidemic throughout the land, from 
New York to San Francisco, from Juneau to the Gulf of 
Mexico, the Wall Street gambler, the Quaker City 
promoter, the Frisco mining broker, and the confidence 
men of a thousand and one minor cities, will be like 
vultures hovering over the prey, laying traps for the 
unwary and seeking to despoil the widow, the orphan, 
the merchant, and the fool, by the introduction of wild- 
cat and impossible schemes, presented in as many forms 
and colors as Joseph's Biblical coat. I do not claim to 
possess immaculate judgment and I do recognize fully 
the importance of fostering and advocating legitimate 
enterprise ; but in all these things there is a line of 
wisdom to be drawn, and I hope that those of my readers 
who may contemplate investing hardly earned savings 
in Alaskan mining schemes may find the price of this 
book rep lid to them ten thousand fold. 

One more sentence before I approach the more solid 
matter which this work, to be of any practical service, 
must contain : I shall, in all probability, be found, in 
the course of a few months, exploring the Klondyke 
region ; but I am, after many years of experience, 
gifted with that most invaluable possession, patience. 
The old saying, "the greater baste the less speed," 
applies with extraordinary significance in the present 



6 THE KLONDYKE GOLD FIELDS. 

excited condition of the public mind as regards the 
Klondyke gold discoveries. There is no occasion for 
hurry. There is every conceivable reason for calm and 
thoughtful consideration before embarking upon an 
enterprise such as is involved in even a visit to the 
mountain ranges of Alaska, or the British northwestern 
territory. New York may yet be destroyed by an 
earthquake. A quaint prediction was given out forty 
years ago by a German of remarkable foresight who 
prophesied many other strange events and calamities 
(all of which have come to pass), that such would be 
the ultimate fate of the Empire City. But the midnight 
sun will continue to shine in northern Alaska. The 
gigantic glaciers will travel on and on and give forth 
weird and unhallowed sounds of desolation. King Frost 
will resume his annual supremacy and for a few short 
months in every j'ear summer and sunshine will 
welcome the feathered songsters from the south and 
nature will sing a lullaby over the graves of those who 
fall by the way. The controlling spirit of mighty 
torrents will rule the gorges and chasms as of j'ore, and 
the snow-capped mountains will forever look down in 
pity and contempt up®n man's puny efforts. All the 
while Nature, the giant manufacturer and producer, is 
pouring gold dust into the beds of rivers and streams, 
by a process mysterious yet effectual. In mountain 
ridges and under sad, lonely, and forbidding recks, she 
is heaping up countless treasures which have yet to be 
discovered, but which man will in time unearth ; and, 
over an area of many hundreds of square miles, there is 
room for an army of a hundred thousand bold explorers 
and adventurers who would, perhaps, never have been 
tempted to journey into thotie wilds liut for the magic 
influence wielded by the one simple word "Klondyke." 
The word Klondyke has gone forth as a trumpet call to 
arms. The banner of gold is held high aloft and the 
recruits are falling into line, some unarmed and 
practically helpless ; others, full of vigor and determin- 
ation and aided by surroundings which should ensure 
more or less success — but it will be, after all , a question 




MRS. &ERRY. THE Mll.LIONAIRe BRIPC, IN MININQ COSTUMI. 



8 THE KLONDYKE GOLD FIELDS, 

of the survival of the fittest, and the luckiest. The 
invasion of a vast and hitherto unexplored territory has 
commenced and the invincible Anglo-Saxon will tramp 
on and on to new discoveries which Nature has held 
hidden during countless centuries. The gold is there!! 
And the more people who go to seek it the greater and 
better will be the facilities provided for their protection 
and support. That which might have been impossible 
to but a few adventurers will be accomplished with 
comparative ease by an army co-operating and working 
in pursuance of a single object, and the solemn stillness 
of the Arctic winter will, in course of years, be 
disturbed by the roaring of the camp fire and the echo 
of the falling pick. As if bv magic, buildings will 
spring up, streets will be laid out, and new towns 
created. The impossibility of existing in such a clime 
will be practically disproved, and comfort will be 
procured where desolation was once paramount. But it 
will take time, and reader, I say again, there is no 
hurry. 

"Oh crievous folly to heap up estate, 

Losing the days you see beneath the sun, 
When, sudden, comes blind unrelenting fate, 
And gives th' untasted portion you have won, 
With ruthless toil, and many a vsretch undone, 
To those -who mock you, gone to Pluto's reign." 

— Shaks.: Borneo and Juliet. 



EVERY school-boy knows that Alaska 
is one of the United States Terri- 
tories, but very few people are 
Alaska. acquainted with its history, its cli- 

mate, its mineral wealth, or its 
extent. Originally in the possession of the Russian 
Government, Alaska was ofiered for sale to the United 
States as far back as the year 1844. The Emperor 
Nicholas of Russia, in presenting the opportunity to the 
United States Government, of purchasing the territory 
for a merely nominal consideration, made it a condition 
that England should be shut out from any frontage on 
the Pacific Ocean. Russia, even at that period, con- 
sidered that England was possessed of quite sufficient 
frontages. The offer, not then accepted, was several 
times renewed, and finally, in 1867, the purchase of 
Alaska was effected by the United States, the price paid 
being at the rate of about half a cent an acre. The in- 
vestment has, so far, proved to be an exceptionally 
profitable one to the United States Government, and it 
is probable, in course of a few years, that the people of 
this country will have especial reason to be thankful 
for the action taken by the Administration of thirty 
years ago, seeing that the increase of the wealth of the 
country, generally, and particularly of the accumulation 
of gold from new sources, will undoubtedly tend to a 
renewal of the prosperity which has been so conspicuous 
by its absence since the panic of 1893. 

Alaska, in brief, is nine times the size of New Eng- 
land, twice the size of Texas, and three times as large 
as California. It extends fv^r more than a thousand 
miles from north to south, and the Aleutian Islands en- 
croach upon the Ivastern Hemisphere. The Islan I of 
Attu is two thousand miles west of Sitka, and it is as 



Alaskan 



lo THE KLONDYKE GOLD FIELDS. 

far from Cape Fox to Point Barrow as from the north of 
Maine to the southern extremity of Florida. But the 
immense extent of the Alaskan territory can be the 
more readily appreciated when it is stated, as is the lact, 
that its coast line has a length of more than i8 coo 
miles, this being greater than that of all the States 
bordering upon the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Gult 
of Mexico combined. 

Mount St. Eli as is the central peak of a crescent- 
shaped range of mountains on the southern shore ot 
Alaska, and lifts its glittering white head more than 
niuaeen thousand feet above sea-level, and can be dis- 
tinctly seen one hundred ana 
fifty miles at sea. The Yukon 
River is to Alaska what the 
Congo is to Africa, the Missis- 
sippi to the central portion of 1 he 
United States, and the Amazun 
to South America. It is a 
mighty stream, 2,044 miles in 
length. It has its source in the 
Rocky Mountains of British Co- 

,, lumbia, at a point about two 

hundred miles northeast of Sitka and, forming the arc 
of a huge circle over 2 ,000 miles long, enters the Behring 
Sea through an extensive delta, pouring into the s?a 
a volume of water so great as to freshen the ocean 
ten miles from its mouth. It. is first known as the 
Yukon at a point where the Pelly River from British 
Columbia meets the Lewis River from southeast Alaska. 
It drains more than 600,000 square miles of territory, 
and discharges one-third more water than does the Mis- 
sissippi It is sixty miles wide at its mouth, and its 
width inland is from one to ten miles. ^ Being compara- 
tively shallow, it is only navigable by flat-bottom boats, 
with a carrying capacity of a few hundred tons, and it 
is entirely closed to navigation during the winter, which 
lasts for about nine months in the year. At various in- 
tervals numerous streams and many large rivers flow 
into the Yukon, the most celebrated of these being the 




12 THE KLONDYKE GOLD FIELDS. 

Klondyke River, now notorious as the center of a region 
famed for deposits of mineral wealth, the extent of 
which it is utterly impossible to foresee, but which, from 
present indications, is practically inexhaustible. 

It has been known for upwards of twenty years that 
gold existed in the valley of the Yukon, the original 
discovery being due to the reports of Indians, and it was, 
even before any actual discoveries were made, strongly 
suspected that the streams and tributaries to the great 
" Amazon of the North " were rich beyond the dreams 
of avarice in the precious yellow metal . It is the opinion 
of several scientific and geological authorities that the 
area of the gold belt may extend fully five hundred miles 
. from east to west, and that it may vary m width from 
one hundred to four hundred miles. In that opinion, 
however, all of the highest authorities do not coincide. 
Mr R E Preston, Director of the United States Mint, 
in a long letter to The World, winds up with the state- 
ment that "the mineral belt has a longitudinal extent of 
about one hundred miles in a northwestern and south- 
eastern direction." r r^ ^ 

Mr. George Frederick Wright, Professor of Geo.ogy 
at Oberlin College, and author of several standard geo- 
logical works, has recently furnished a statement of the 
deepest interest, from which the following extracts may 
be appropriately given : Mr. Wright says, " As to the 
ultimate yield of the mines, or the prospect of finding 
more, we have nothing but conjecture to go upon. The 
geologists who have visited the region were not the ones 
who discovered the gold. What the prospectors have 
found points to more. The unexplored region is im- 
mense. The mountains to the south are young, having 
been elevated very much since the climax of the glacial 
period. The great mass of gold-bearing quartz at the 
Treadwell Mine, near Juneau (the capital city of Alaska), 
was what might be expected, and at the same time what 
might be the limitation of the supply. For more than 
ten years that mine has furnished more than a million 
dollars of gold annually, but it is not like ordinary 
quartz mines. It is rather a great, isolated mass ot 



ALASKA. 13 

quartz, with gold disseminated all through it. While 
its worth is great its length is limited. Little is known 
about the geology of the Yukon River where the Klon- 
dyke mines have been found. Being placer mines, the 
gold may have been transported many miles. The 
means of transportation are both glaciers and rivers. 
Dawson and Professor Russell both report well-defined 
terminal moraines across the upper Yukon Valley. The 
source of the Klondyke gold, therefore, is from the 
south. 

"Placer mines originate in the disintegration of 
gold-bearing quartz veins, or mass like that at Juneau. 
Under sub-aerial agencies these become dissolved, then 
the glaciers transport the material as far as they go, 
when the floods of water carry it on still further. Gold, 
being heavier than the other materials associated with 
it, lodges in the crevasses, or in the rough places at the 
bottom of the streams. So to speak, Nature ha,s stamped 
and ' panned ' the gravel first and prepared the way for 
man to finish the work. The amount of gold found in 
the placer mines is evidence, not so much, perhaps, of a 
very rich vein as of the disintegration of a very large 
vein. The ' mother lode ' has been looked for in vain 
in California, and perhaps will be so in Alaska. But it 
exists somewhere up the streams on which the placer 
mines are found. The discovery of gvild in glacial 
deposits far away from its native place is familiar to 
American geologists. 

" The general climatic conditions on the north side 
of the mountains are much better than those on the 
south side. On the south side the snowfall is enormous, 
but on the north side the air is dryer. It is not impos- 
sible that explorations southwest of the present gold 
fields may be carried on with comparative ease." 

General Nelson A. Miles, in his " Personal Recol- 
lections," observes that, "among the results of the war 
as connected with the West, was the acquisition of 
Alaska, that magnificent pendant to our territorial area. 
The undisguised sympathy shown to us in our struggle 
by Russia, aggravated the strained relations already 



14 



THE KLONDYKE GOLD FIELDS. 



existing between that country and Great Britain, while 
drawing still more closely the bonds of friendship pre- 
viously existing between her and the United States. 
Soon after the war, rather than endanger these friendly 
relations by the complications that seemed likely to arise 
from the presence in Alaskan waters of our whalers and 
fishermen, and, perhaps, willing also to perform an act 
showing her independence of Great Britain, Russia 
departed from her traditional policy and sold this terri- 
tory to our Government for $7,200,000." 

The Alaskan mountain ranges contain some of the 
most magnificent glaciers to be found anywhere upon 
the globe. The Malaspine Glacier is one of the greatest 
extent. It may be described as a vast prairie of ice, 

forever moving slowly onward, 
and it is possible to look down 
upon it from a height of three 
thousand feet and yet be unable 
to discover its southern limits. 
Among the most interesting 
features of Alaska will be found 
evergreen forests, carpeted with 
flowers and ferns, growing on 
live glaciers hundreds of feet in 
thickness. At Glacier Bay is 
the Muir Glacier, the face of which is a solid wall of ice 
two miles in width. Another glacier, forty miles long 
and over five miles wide, is to be found on the Stickine 
River, and the Miles Glacier, discovered by Lieutenant 
Abercrombie during his exploration of the Copper River 
country, is regarded as one of the most interesting of 
these wonders of nature. 

It requires a great ejffort of the imagination to 
gather an adequate idea of a valley, miles in extent, 
packed solidly with ice, lying between two ranges of 
mountains, the ice being formed from closely-packed 
and semi-liquid snow. The movement of these glaciers, 
although constantly in motion, is so slow as to be alto- 
gether imperceptible, but the fact of the movement is 
borne out by results. There is a never-ceasing fall of 




ALASKA. 15 

masses of ice, at the extremity of the glacier, and these 
masses, ranging from a few pounds in weight to blocks 
acres in extent, produce noises which can only be com- 
pared to the roar of thunder, and which are frequently 
heard at a distance of many miles. 

Scenes such as these are of surpassing beauty and 
grandeur, and with the opening up of facilities for trans- 
portation, which the successful working of the new gold 
fields is certain to inaugurate, it may be a question of 
only a short period when trips to Alaska will become as 
popular and as practicable as visits to the great Yellow- 
stone Park. 

The exploration of the valley of the Yukon River 
by Lieutenant Schwatka, in 1883, is described in the 
" Personal Recollections of General Nelson A. Miles," 
and forms a chapter full of graphic interest. General 
Miles writes: " The difficulties 
that had been experienced by 
others in exploring the Yukon 
from its mouth, led Lieutenant 
Schwatka to believe that it 
might be easier to descend than -a.- >/■» -iv\ 

to ascend, and he made hiss \ - • •^*^_^lI^2=5^V' - 
preparations with this end in x^^^^^^^'/f'^ "'", , 
view. He finally decided to </^^^<"''^^f''' ^'z 
make the attempt to reach its ' '--^''^- '' '' 
, J . , ^ r .-> rM.-i Thp«)vjc,h Miles CAN'toN., 

head waters by way of the Chil- 

coot trail (so frequently referred to in the newspapers, 
with reference to journeys to and from the Klondyke 
region), which leads up the inlet of the same name, to a 
branch called the Day ay, then through this to the mouth 
of the Dayay River, thence to its head, and thence across 
the mountains to Lake Lindeman. From Lake Marsh 
they entered the Yukon River, and on July 1st found 
themselves approaching the grand canon of the Yukon. 
The river, which before reaching this point is about 
three hundred and fifty yards in width, here begins to 
grow narrower, until it is hardly more than thirty-five 
yards wide. The walls of the canon are of perpendicular 
basalt, nearly a mile in height, being widened in the 




i6 THE KLONDYKE GOLD FIELDS. 

center into a huge basin about double tbe usual width 
of the stream in the canon, and this basin is full of 
whirlpools and eddies, in which nothing but a fish could 
live. Through this canon the wild waters rush in a 
perfect mass of foam, with a reverberation that can be 
heard a considerable distance away. Overhanging the 
canon are huge spruce trees standing in gloomy rows. 
At the northern end the water spreads rapidly to its 
former width, although not losing any of its swiftness, 
and falls in a wide, shallow sheet over reels of boulders 
and drifts of huge timber. About four miles further 
down the river grows narrower than ever, and the volume 
of water is so great that it ascends the sloping banks to 
a considerable height, and then falis back into the narrow 
bed below. The shooting of the canon and rapids 
was an exciting adventure, and I will give Lieutenant 
Schwatka's experience in his own words. 

"'Everything being in readiness, our inspection 
made and our resolution formed, in the forenoon of the 
2d of July, we prepared to shoot the raft through the 
rapids of the grand canon, and at 11.25 the bow and 
stern lines were cast loose, and after a few minutes' hard 
work at shoving the craft out of the little eddy where 
she lay, the poor vessel resisting as if she knew all that 
was ahead of her. and was loath to go, she finally swung 
clear of the point, and, like a racer at the start, made 
almost a leap forward, and the die was cast. A moment's 
hesitation at the canon's brink, and quick as a flash the 
whirling craft plunged into the foam, and before twenty 
3'ards were made had collided with the western wall of 
the columnar rock with a shock as loud as a blast, tearing 
ofi" the inner side log and throwing the outer one far into 
the stream. The raft swung around this as upon a hinge, 
just as if it had been a straw in a gale of wind, and again 
resumed its rapid career. In the whirlpool basin of the 
canon, the craft, for a brief second or two, seemed actu- 
ally buried out of sight in the foam. Had there been a 
dozen giants on board they could have had no more in- 
fluence in directing her course than as many spiders. It 
was a ver}- simple matter to trust the rude vessel entirely 



ALASKA. 17 

to fate, to work out its own salvation. I was most afraid 
of the four miles of shallow rapids below the canon, but 
she only received a dozen or a score of smart bumps, 
that started a log here and there, but tore none from the 
structure, and nothing remained ahead of her but the 
cascades. These reached, in a few minutes the craft was 
caught at the bow by the first high wave, in the funnel- 
like chute, and lifted into the air until it stood almost at 
an angle of thirty degrees, when it went through the 
cascades like a charge of fixed bayonets, and almost as 
swiftly as a flash of light, burying its nose in the foam 
beyond as it subsided. Those on board the raft now got 
hold of a line from their friends on shore, and, after 
breaking it several time?, they finally brought the craft 
alongside the bank, and commenced repairing the 
damage with light hearts, for our greatest obstacle was 
now at our backs.' 

' ' During this reconnoissance much valuable infor- 
mation was obtained regarding the inhabitants of the 
country, the whole number belonging to the various 
tribes observed by the expedition aggregating over 
eleven thousand. 

"Lieutenant Schwatka's exploration was one of 
exceeding interest and value, adding a very important 
chapter of information about that remote country. The 
territory he passed over, however, had not been 
entirely un traversed by prospectors and miners, as a few 
of those adventurous spirits had previously penetrated 
that country in search of gold and other minerals. He 
describes the natives as a hardy, brave people, and 
most expert boat builders. Schwatka found these 
native races among the hardiest and strongest on the 
continent. All his baggage had to be carried over the 
mountains on the backs of men hired for that purpose, 
and he reports that they could take a box of ammun- 
ition or supplies weighing a hundred pounds and go up 
the side of a mountain as rapidly as an ordinary man 
could travel without any burden. 

"The principal industries of Alaska at present are 
the fur trade, mining, and the curing and canning of 



i8 THE KLONDYKE GOLD FIELDS. 

fish. The value of the Seal Islands was not appreciated 
at the time of their transfer to this country. In 1870, 
the Alaska Commercial Company of San Francisco 
ob'-ained a twenty years' lease of the Islands of St. Paul 
and St. George, and are believed to have divided from 
$900,000 to $1,000,000 profits annually between twelve 
original stockholders. In 1S90 another twenty year's 
lease was awarded the North American Commercial 
Company of San Francisco for an annual rental of 
$100,000. 

"Who can foretell the future of this country when 
the similarity between its people and the ancient 
Britons, according to the descriptions handed down to 
us is remembered. Should the country be occupied by 
civilized races who have the advantages of all the 
wonderful modern inventions and implements, Alaska 
may yet play an important part in the great future, and 
the development of the resources of its mines, waters 
and forests may one day contribute largely to the 
welfare of the human family." 

ACROSTIC. 

A laska, far off land, in myst'ry veiled ; 

L and of the walrus, and the midnight sun ; 

A rmies of men, th}'' trackless wastes, have trail'd, 

S e«"kiug for gold — the work's but yet begun : 

K londyke's the echo of the call to arms, 

A nd men will go in spite of all alarms. 



19 



IT IS probable that ninety-nine per 
cent, of the readers of this work 

would be found, upon investigation, 
Qold Mining:. to be as ignorant of the details and 

intricacies of gold mining as a pract- 
ical miner would be of manufacturing muslin, or of cul- 
tivating coffee. A few words, therefore, may not be out 
of place upon a subject which has become of almost uni- 
versal interest. Thousands of men who have passed the 
better part of their lives in cities, and who have never 
handled a spade or rocked a cradle, are being attracted 
to the Klondyke region because they have read in news- 
papers that immense quantities of gold dust have been 
won from the beds of rivers and creeks, with consum- 
mate ease, and with the aid of primitive appliances. 
These men are undertaking a task which will inevitably 
cause, to many of them, bitter repentance. The life of 
the typical gold miner is one of hard work, exposure, 
and ceaseless temptation. In the severe Alaskan clim- 
ate the work will be still harder, the exposure greater, 
and the temptations none the less. 

It has been frequently asserted, and I am inclined 
by my own experience to confirm the statement, that 
every dollar's worth of gold which has been won from 
the earth's secret store-houses has cost two dollars to 
procure. That statement is, of course, with regard to 
all the gold which has been found, as against the total 
expenditure involved in obtaining, or in trying to ob- 
tain, gold. Every man who journeys to Klondyke must 
have money wherewith to purchase the necessaries of 
life until he can earn sufficient to defray his current ex- 
penses. Let it be assumed, for the sake of argument, 
that, including those adventurers who have recently 
thronged the vessels leaving San Francisco, Seattle, and 



20 



THE KLONDYKE GOLD FIELDS. 




flMOmti GOLD. 



other ports, twenty thousand persons will «afely reach 
the Klondyke gold fields by the month of June next. It 
is perfectly safe to say that five thousand of those gold 
seekers — most of them novices and tyros at the business 

— will, from one cause or an- 
other, such as slothfulness, 
drunkeness, sickness, want of 
perseverance, gambling, lack of 
opportunity (synonymous with 
ill-luck), fail 1o earn anything 
in proportion to the heavj' ex- 
pense of procuring a bare sub- 
sistence. Let it also be assumed 
that each of these forlorn ones 
carries with him, at the start 
(including the cost of the journey from home), seven 
hundred and fifty dollars. We have, then, an expendi- 
ture in gross of three million seven hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars. Against this we must take into ac- 
count the earnings of the other fifteen thousand advent- 
urers, some few of whom will undoubtedly "strike it 
rich. " But from those earnings must also be deducted 
the expenses incurred, which, by the most reasonable 
calculation, will amount to $i,ooo each. The men who 
earn freely spend more, to say nothing ol dissipation and 
gambling. Fifteen thousand times one thousand dollars 
amounts to $15,000,000. Add that sum to the ^3, 750, 000 
which have already disappeared and we have a grand 
total of $18,750,000. The figures are startling, are they 
not? But they will be found, by practical experience, 
to be approximately correct. Will any one venture to 
say that the grafts earnings of these 20 000 people may, 
by September, i8g8, amount to more than $18,000,000? 
The earnings may, of course, reach thirty millions, but, 
from a conservative standpoint, I assert that if my esti- 
mate be inaccurate it is more likely to err on an under- 
estimate of the actual expenditure than an over-estimate 
of the receipts. But, whichever way it may turn out, 
there is infinite satisfaction in knowing that enormous 
§ums of money will be put into active circulation ; that 



GOLD MINING. 21 

some few persons will realize, to the full, their ambition 
and dreams of riches; and, reversing the shield, that a 
host of disappointed men will be bewailing their ill-for- 
tune, their loss of health, and their impecuniosity. 

Let us go back to the Californiau boom of 1849 ^^ 
order to institute a fair comparison. Two billion dollars 
were taken out of the mountains of the Pacific Slope, 
but the bulk of the money fell into but few hands. The 
greatest winners were : 

Leland Stanford Estimated profit, $35,000,000 

C. P. Huntington " " 35,000,000 

Claus Spreckels " " 30,000000 

James G. Fair " " 25,000,000 

Charles Crocker " " 22,000,000 

Mark Hopkins " " 21,000,000 

Peter Donahoe ** " 20,000,000 

J. B. Haggin " " 20,000,000 

Sharon Estate " " 20,000,000 



«C 



$228,000,000 
Showing that less than ten men acquired more than 
one-tenth of the total gold recovered. 

It has been the same in South Africa, only more 
strikingly in favor of the argument that but a few grow 
rich through gold mining. The 
total amount of gold recovered 
since the opening of the South 
African fields in 1890, up to 
June, 1896, is set down at 
$212,000,000. Where has it 
gone? Barney Barnato was re- 
puted to be worth $200,000,000; 
J. B. Robinson is credited with 
a fortune of $250,000,000; Al- 
fred Belt is supposed to have 
accumulated $100,000,000 ; and Cecil Rhodes' fortune 
is estimated at $50,000,000 Four men with $600,000,- 
000 between them ! Allowing that a large proportion 
of this wealth was derived from diamond mining, which 
was indeed the case, there would not be a vast sum 




'U -///i^ 



TYPICAL 

rii 



lEl^. 



KLONDYKE MINING. 




' Gold ! Gold ! Gold ! Gold ! 
Bright and yellow, hard and cold, 
Molten, graven, hammer'd and roll'd; 
Heavy to get, and light to hold ; 
Hoarded, barter'd, bought and sold, 
Spurn'd by the young, but hugg'd by the old 
To the very verge of the churchyard mould; 
Price of many a crime untold ; 
Gold ! Gold ! Gold ! Gold ! " 

— Torn Hood. 



GOLD MINING. 23 

remaining for the mai'ority of prospectors and miners in 
South Africa, after deducting the sums actually made 
through gold mining by the four persons above men- 
tioned. 

Commencing with the date of the discovery of 
America up to ihe close of the year 1895, the statisti- 
cians of the various governments of the world estimate 
the value of the total amount of gold mined, throughout 
the world, at less than $9,000,000,000. If the fact could, 
indeed, be ascertained, it would not, in the least, sur- 
prise me to learn that the total expenditure in direct re- 
lation to gold mining, during the period above men- 
tioned, has amounted to $20,000,000,000. The figures, 
in any event, are startlingly impressive; and, if they do 
not precisely adorn a tale, they, at least, point a very 
useful moral which should deter a great many adventur- 
ous and hopeful spirits from indulging in "great expec- 
tations" which, excepting in few and remote cases, are 
doomed never to be realized. 

The fact, however, that the wealth now being ex- 
tracted from the Klondyke gold fields is found in the 
beds of creeks and rivers, and can be recovered without 
the aid of heavy machinery and scientific appliances so 
indispensable in quartz mining, gives an impetus and an 
infinitely greater chance to the individual adventurer. 
All the same, in my opinion, the ownership of the best 
claims on the Klondyke fields will ultimately drift into 
the hands of wealthy men and corporations. 'Twas ever 
thus. Capital is already forcing its way into the region. 
Wall Street is on the qui vive. Men like James R. 
Keene (who is reputed to have recently made upwards 
of $2,000,000 out of sugar trust speculations), are ready 
to embark capital in the new Eldorado. In opposition 
to these the mere novice has, in the long run, no chance 
whatever. The capitalist can stay at home and pull the 
strings. He can most certainly secure, and he can afford 
to engage, the very best expert talent, and by liberal 
treatment of those whom he employs, he can ensure 
honest and faithful representation. Gold mining, 
wherever conducted, and under whatever conditions, 



24 THE KLONDYKE GOLD FIELDS, 

ultimately resolves itself into the employment of labor; 
a-'d, be the price of that labor ever so high for the time 
being, the capitalist who is properly represented must 
inevitably reap the best reward. The laborer, though 
well and liberall}^ paid, has to live and, under existing 
conditions, on the Klondyke gold fields he has to pay an 
enormous price for the privilege 

Were I in possession of $100,000 I would rather pay 
$50,000 for a partly worked claim on the Klondyke, 
which I knew to be prolific, than prospect in untried 
ground. The papers intimate, through their numerous 
correspondents, that by next June every inch of ground 
on the Klondyke fields will be staked out and that 
thousands of people will be seeking in vain for a loca- 
tion. That is extremely likely. But there will be 
plenty of claims in the market. Everything is for sale 
in this world — at a price. And all this tends to benefit 
the discreet and patient capitalist who can afibrd to risk 
money which the ordinary run of adventurers can never, 
by any possibility, command. The average man, with 
a small capital of $1,000 would, in my view, do better 
to stay at home and invest his money in the stock of a 
powerful corporation — always providing that he could 
discover a corporation which is managed by practical 
business men and honestly conducted. If he takes his 
$1 000 to the fields he must be lucky to come out ahead. 
If he b"; actually lucky, his investment of the money in 
the right kind of stock v;'\\\ bring him substantial profits, 
and that without risk to health, or absence from his 
regular occupation. I need not now enlarge on this sub- 
ject as a few pages will be devoted to it later in these 
annals. 

When I wrote the heading of this chapter I had it 
in mind to restrict its contents to details connected with 
the practical side of gold mining; but, carried away for 
the moment, I have introduced a discussion which may 
not, I hope, be found uninteresting. The practical side 
cannot, however, be neglected, and the following notes, 
confirmed by my own experience, are taken from the 
best and most reliable records obtainable. 



GOLD MINING. 25 

*The association and distribution of gold may be 
considered under two different heads ; namely, as it 
occurs in mineral veins, and in alluvial or other super- 
ficinl deposits which are derived from the waste of the 
former. As regards the first, it is chiefly found in 
quartz veins or reefj traversing slaty or crystalline 
rocks, usually talcose or chloritic schists, either alone 
or in association with iron, copper, magnetic and arseni- 
cal pyrites, galena, specular iron ore, and silver ores, 
and more rarely with sulphide ot mol>bdenum, tungstate 
of calcium, bismuth, and tellurium minerals. Another 
more exceptional association is that with bismuth in 
calcite from Queensland. In Hungary, the Urals, and 
in northern Peru, silicates and carbonates of manganese 
are not uncommonly found in the gold and silver 
bearing veins. In the second or alluvial class of 
deposits the associated minerals are chiefly those of 
great density and hardness, such as platinum, osmiri- 
dura, and other metals of the platinum group, tinstone, 
chromic, magnetic, and brown iron ores, diamond, ruby, 
and sapphire, zircon, topaz, garnet, etc., which repre- 
sent the more durable original constituents of the rocks 
whose disintegration has furnished the detritus. 

"The distribution of gold-bearing deposits is world 
wide ; although the relative importance of different 
localities is very different, their geological range is also 
very extensive. In Europe, the principal groups of 
veins are in slaty or crystalline schists, whose age, 
when it can be determined, is usually Palccozoic, 
Silurian, Devonian, or Carboniferous, and less commonly 
in volcanic formations of Tertiary age. The alluvial 
deposits being more extensive, are less intimately con- 
nected with any particular series of rocks. Few, if 
either are, however, of much importance as compared 
with the more productive deposits of America and 
Australia. 

" The Russian Empire has the largest gold pro- 
duction among the countries of the Old World, most of 
the produce, however, being derived from its Asiatic 

'Encyclopedia Brilanica, Vol. lo. 



26 



THE KLONDYKE GOLD FIELDS, 




territories. The richest of the Ural mines are those of 
Smolensk, near Miask, and Ouspensk, near the village 
of Katchkar, in 52° N. The alluvial deposits which, 
though called sands, are but very slightly sandy clays, 
extend to the north beyond the inhabited regions, and 
to the south into the Cossack and Bashkir countries. 

' ' On the Pacific side of America gold is found under 
very diJGferent conditions, and on a much larger scale 

than on the Atlantic side. The 
whole distance from Mexico to 
Alaska may be said to be more 
or less auriferous, the most ex- 
tensive deposits being in the 
great North-and-South valley of 
the Sacramento, which runs 
parallel to the coast between 
the so-called Coast Mountains 
and the Sierra Nevada, the lat- 
ter being distinguished further 
to the north in the Cascade Range. 

" The various deposits of gold may be divided into 
two classes — 'veins' and 'placers.' The vein mining 
of gold does not greatly diflfer from that of similar de- 
posits of metals. It will only be necessary to refer here 
to certain details of the extraction of gold in such cases. 
In the placer or alluvial deposits, the precious metal is 
found usually in a water-worn condition imbedded in 
earthy matter, and the method of working all such de- 
posits is based on the disintegration of the earthy matter 
by the action of a stream of water, which washes away 
the lighter portions and leaves the denser gold. In allu- 
vial deposits the richest ground is usually found in con- 
tact with the ' bed rock; ' and, when the overlaying 
cover of gravel is very thick, or, as sometimes happens, 
when the older gravel is covered with a flow of basalt, 
regular mining by shafts and levels, as in what are 
known as tunnel-claims, may be required to reach the 
auriferous ground. In the early days of gold washing 
in California and Australia (and as now in evidence at 
the Klondyke r&^ion), when rich alluvial deposits were 



GOLD MINING. 27 

common at the surface, the most simple appliances suf- 
ficed; the most characteristic being the 'pan, ' a circu- 
lar dish of sheet-iron with sloping sides about thirteen 
or fourteen inches in diameter. The pan, about two- 
thirds filled with ' pay dirt ' to be washed, is held in the 
stream or in a hole filled with water. The miner, after 
separating the larger stones by hand, imparts a gyratory 
motion to the pan by a combination of shaking and 
twisting movements, which it is impossible to describe 
explicitly, so as to keep its contents suspended in the 
stream of water, which carries away the bulk of the 
lighter material, leaving a black residue consisting of 
magnetic iron ore and other heavy minerals, together 
with any gold which may originally have been present 
in the mass. The washing is repeated until enough of 
the enriched sand is collected, when the gold is finally 
recovered by careful washing or ' panning out ' in a 
smaller pan. 

"The * cradle,' a simple appliance for treating some- 
what larger quantities, varies in length from three feet, 
six inches, to seven feet, but the shorter length is that 
usually adopted. Water is poured on the dirt, and the 
rocking motion imparted to the cradle causes the finer 
particles to pass through the holes in the hopper on to 
the screen, which is of canvas, and thence to the base 
of the cradle, where the auriferous particles accumulate 
on transverse bars of wood called 'riffles.' The ' torn ' 
is a sort of cradle, with an extended sluice placed on an 
incline of about one foot in twelve. The upper end 
contains a perforated riddle plate, which is placed di- 
rectly over the riffle box, and under certain circum- 
stances mercury may be placed behind the riffles. 
Copper plates, amalgamated with mercury, are also used 
jvhen the gold is very fine, and even in some instances 
amalgamated silver coins have been employed for the 
same purpose. Sometimes the stuff is disintegrated 
with water in a 'paddling machine,' which is used, 
especially in Australia, where the earthy matters are 
tenacious and water scarce. 

" In workings on a larger scale, where the supply 



28 THE KLONDYKE GOLD FIELDS. 

of water is abundant, as in California, sluices are gener- 
ally employed. They are shallow troughs about twelve 
feet long, about sixteen to twenty inches wide, and one 
foot in depth. The troughs taper slightly so that they 
can be joined in series, the total length often reaching 
several hundred feet. In the larger and more permanent 
erections used in hj^draulic mining, the upper ends of 
the sluices are often cut in rock, or lined with stone 
blocks, the grating stopping the larger stones being 
known as the 'grizzly.' In order to save very fine, 
and especially rusty particles of gold, so-called ' under- 
current sluices ' are used ; these are shallow wooden 
tanks, fifty square yards and upwards in area, which are 
placed somewhat below the main sluice, and commu- 
nicate with it above and below, the entry being protected 
by a grating so that only the finer material is admitted. 
These are paved with stone blocks, or lined with mercury 
riffles, so that from the greatly reduced velocity of flow, 
due to the sudden increase of surface, the finer particles 
of gold may collect. In order to save finely-divided 
gold, amalgamated copper plates are sometimes placed 
in a nearly level position, at a considerable distance from 
the head of the sluice, the gold which is retained in it 
being removed from time to time. 

" The so-called hydraulic system of mining is carried 
on by the application of a jet of water to the removal (»f 
auriferous gravels. This method has for the most part 
been confined to the country of its invention, California, 
and the Western territories of America, where the con- 
ditions favorable for its use are more fully developed 
than elsewhere — notably the presence of thick banks of 
gravel that cannot be utilized by other methods, and 
abundance of water, even though considerable work 
may be required at times to make it available. At an 
hydraulic gold-working the water is brought from a 
ditch on the high ground, and through a line of pipes 
to the distributing box, whence the branch pipes sup- 
plying two or three jets diverge. The stream issues 
through a nozzle resembling that of a fire engine, which 
is movable iu a horizontal plane around a vertical axis, 



GOLD MINING. 29 

and in a vertical plane on a spherical joint and center, 
so that the direction of the jet may be varied through 
considerable angles by simply moving a handle. The 
material of the bank, being loosened by the cutting 
action of the water, crumbles into holts, or, as the 
common phrase expresses it, 'caves in,' and the super- 
incumbent mass, often with large trees and stones, Jails 
into the lower ground. The stream, laden with stones 
and gravel, passes into the sluices, where the gold is 
recovered in the manner already described. Under the 
most advantageous conditions, the loss of gold may be 
estimated at 15 or 20 per cent. 

"The dressing or mechanical preparation of vein 
stuff containing gold is generally similar to that of other 
ores, except that the precious metal should be removed 
from the waste substances as quickly as possible, even 
although other minerals of value that are subsequently 
recovered may be present. This is usually done by 
amalgamation with mercury. In all cases the quartz or 
other vein stuff must be reduced to a very fine powder 
as a preliminary to further operations, 

" By far the largest proportion of the gold quartz of 
California and Australia is reduced by the stamp mill, 
which is similar in principle to that used in England for 
the preparation of tin and other ores, but has received 
special modification in many details. 

"There are many forms of pan amalgamators of 
which it is needless to give a description. It may be 
stated, however, that experience of the great variety of 
pans, from time to time devised, has led to the adoption 
of the more simple forms, in which grinding is effected 
between horizontal flat surfaces instead of curved or con- 
ical bottoms, and in the pans now usually employed 
these flat grinding surfaces form an annular floor round 
a central cone through which a vertical shaft passes. 
One of the greatest difl&culties in the treatment of gold 
by amalgamation, and more particularly in the treat- 
ment of pyrites, arises from the so-called sickening or 
flouring of the mercury; that is, the particles, losing 
their bright metallic surfaces, are no louger capable of 



30 THE KLONDYKE GOLD FIELDS. 

coalescing with or taking up other metals. Of the num- 
erous remedies proposed the most efficacious is perhaps 
sodium amalgam. It appears that amalgamation is 
often impeded by the tarnish found on the surface of the 
gold when it is associated with sulphur, arsenic, bis- 
muth, antimony, or tellurium." 

One of the most interesting works, having reference 
to mining, which has appeared during recent years, was 
published in 1895, under the title of "Minerals," and 
emanated from the pen of Mr. Frederick H. Smith of 
Baltimore, Md., from which I quote as follows: 

"Although gold is distributed among all rocks and 
formations, its derivation from some earliest matrix is 
certain. Of course it came down originally out of the 
condensing gasses along with all other terrestrial 
substances, but there are reasons for thinking that the 
golden rain was one of the earliest incidents of world 
building, and that it was subsequently covered up by 
the deposits of lighter substances on top. In fact it is 
not at all improbable that gold may be one of the metals 
which are supposed to constitute the central core of the 
globe, and which makes the whole mass of the specific 
gravity of 5 2 ; while that of the crust of rocks, etc., is 
only about 2.6, on an average. This fact alone proves 
a great concentration of heavy substances at the centre 
of the globe ;. and as gold is so heavy in its metallic 
condition, and so energetically resists combination with 
other high fire -proof substances which would lighten it, 
there is strong probability that gold is an important 
constituent of this heavy core. 

"Down among the bottom rocks of the primaries, in 
the gneisses and granites we first find gold, and we find 
it associated WvCo. pyrites or sulphide ores of iron, copper, 
silver and other metals. These sulphides are in veins, 
mostly true fissure veins, which open downwards into 
the great unknown, and show all the marks of having 
been filled with the pyritous ores by the injection from 
below of melted substance and its subsequent cooling 
and crystallization. These fissures, down in the lowest 
known formations and igneous rocks are generally 



GOLD MINING. 31 

filled from wall to wall with pyritous ores, but when we 
get up among the Huronian and lower Silurian rocks 
we find that great quantities of quartz are intermixed 
with the pyrites, and indeed the fissures are sometimes 
filled with quartz from wall to wall. Often the 
quartz and pyrites are in sheets or layers, alternating, 
accompanied by barytes, calcite, and other common 
gangue rock of veins. 

"It is an observed fact that the gold in the 
sulphides of the lower veins is infinitesimally small in 
grain, while that found up among the quartz is larger, 
and can even sometimes be seen in the quartz by the 
unaided eye. That in sulphides is so fine that very 
many particles are required to be gotten together to 
make a speck or 'color' 

"No man likes to say straight out that there is a 
natural gold sulphide, yet many claim that these 
invisible particles are really atomic, just freed from 
combination with sulphur, and become visible when 
aggregating into molecules of 
gold. Others claim that the 
gold is in flakes, or rather films 
of infinite thinness intercalated 
between the little cubical crys- 
tals of pyritous ores, as are the 
mortars and cements in the 
joints of brickwork or masonry. 
Others hold that each particle 
of gold is enveloped in a block 
or crystal of pyrites, and is 
freed mechanically by the crushing of this crystal, or 
chemically by the oxidation of the pyrites in open air 
weathering or in furnace treatment. Still another idea 
is that as gold in Nature is always alloyed with a little 
silver, copper or other metal, the sulphur lays hold of 
such other metal and forms a film of sulphide 
ore around the gold without actually combining 
with the gold itself. When this sulphide film is 
oxidized it becomes a film of oxide ore, and is then 
called 'rusty' gold by the maledictating miners, 




32 THE KLONDYKE GOLD FIELDS. 

who cannot make their mercury lay hold_ of it. 

"In veins containing much quartz the gold is found 
in both the quartz and the pyrites, but that in the 
quartz is generally much larger in grain than that in 
the pyrites, although they may be in the closest 
proximity. Why this is thus, and how the gold 
traveled from the pyrites into the hard body of the 
quartz, are questions not yet answered satisfactorily. 
Then, again, the quartz will contain numerous little 
sharp-cornered cavities which formerly contained crys- 
tals of sulphides which have become oxidized naturally, 
and the cavities now contain the brown iron oxide dust 
and the minute particles cf gold which have been 
released by the oxidation. 

"Gold is also found in veins of pure quartz with no 
admixture of sulphides, and n:) signs of there having 
ever been any there. In these cases the gold is all free 
gold, and apt to be in grains round in shape and large 
enough to be seen in the quartz with the naked eye, 
although very large fortunes have been made out of 
veins of this class in which the gold was invisible until 
the particles were concentrated. Some hold that the 
gold got into these quartz veins by precipitation^ from 
some chlorine or other chemical solution included in the 
silicious mother liquor, out of which the quartz was 
crystallized. Others, that the gold was washed out of 
an igneous vein and washed into the open top of the 
quartz vein ; and still others assert that the gold was 
originally disseminated throughout the mass of the 
country rock, and was drawn into the fissure in some 
chlorine solution right through the wall rock by some 
sort of electricity. 

"It is well to reflect that, perhaps, all the theories 
may be right, some in one place, others in other places, 
and some cases may be the result of all acting together, 
reinforced by others not yet stated ; and the best we can 
do'is to say, Qiden Sabef 
9-- •'' "The quartz intermixed in pyritic veins is vitreous 
quartz, and is nearly always auriferous, while vitreous 
quartz in a vein all to itself is rarely so. A quartz 



34 THE KLONDYKE GOLD FIELDS. 

which has a granular, sugary appearance is frequently- 
auriferous ; but massive, milky looking quartz is rarely 
good for much. 

"Sometimes a sulphide and quartz vein is found in 
which the sulphides have oxidized into a brown iron 
ore down to the water level of the locality, and down 
to that level it pays to work it, as the gold is free from 
sulphur ; but below that level the sulphides are hard 
and close, and the money made out of the upper levels 
goes back again into the mine in the lower levels, unless 
the workers have been sagacious enough to unload the 
property at the right time and give others a chance. 

"In general terms the pulverization and oxidation 
to free the gold from attached impurities, and the 
washing and concentration to free the gold from 
intermixed impurities are the necessary two steps in all 
processes of gold saving, but many additional small 
steps have been invented which facilitate matters. 
The chief of these is the lugging in of mercury, which 
assists in two ways in separating the gold from its 
associate minerals. Mercury is a fluid and has a 
specific gravity of 13.6 commonly, but when entirely 
pure is 14. 

"To those who are utterly unacquainted with the 
business of gold mining and even to those who have had 
some practical experience of such operations, the 
following condensed information cannot fail to be of 
value : 

"The only absolute test for determining the 
presence of gold, is by dissolving the specimen of rock 
or sand or other suspected substance in nitro-hydro- 
chloric acid (aqua regia), and then pouring into the clear 
solution some dissolved sulphate of iron (copperas). 
This will precipitate to the bottom, in the form of a 
reddish-brown powder, any gold that may be in the 
solution. Rub this brown powder with the blade of a 
knife, and it will come out in true gold colors. If you 
have weighed the specimen, then you can weigh the 
gold and ascertain the percentage of value in the ore. 
Aqua regia is made up of two parts, hydrochloric 



GOLD MINING. 35 

(muriatic) acid, and one part of nitric acid, and it is the 
only acid which will dissolve gold. Gold melts at 
about 2,6oD degrees. 

"A usual method to ascertain practically the value 
of pyrites is to pulverize a weighed specimen to about 
the size of fine sand, then roast it at a red heat (not too 
hot), until no more sulphur fumes arise, then pulverize 
it again to as fine a grain as you can get it with a 
hammering and rubbing motion, then wash off all the 
lighter stuff" by panning, then put it in a china cup with 
a half-teaspoonful of mercury and mix it for half an hour 
with a wooden stick, then wash off" everything except 
the mercury, then put the cup on a shovel and heat it 
carefully over a fire until all the mercury is driven off" in 
fumes, and the reddish-brown powder left in the cup is 
about all the gold there was in the specimen. Quartz 
specimens can be treated in the same way. The 
roasting of quartz and suddenly dropping it hot into 
cold water is good for it." 

Much of the matter contained in this chapter being 
of a technical character may have proved "dry reading" 
to many ; but if my friend, the reader, be but an amateur 
gold miner, it is as well for him to bear in mind one 
important fact, namely, that rich placer diggings do not 
last for ever, and that, once he enters upon the vocation 
of a prospector, he has much, indeed, to learn, in the 
nature of which the matter herein contained should 
prove a practical and comparatively easy lesson and a 
fair commencement. 

Every person who is about to seek for gold in the 
Klondyke region, and even those who, though remaining 
at home, are watching with patriotic interest the 
development of these portentous discoveries should be 
able, at least, to "talk gold," and it is one of the objects 
sought in the production of this work, to enable them to 
do so with a greater measure of intelligence. Hence, I 
tender no apology for introducing so many pages of 
heavy matter because they are culled, in great part, 
from the writings of the highest scientific, geological, 
and practical authorities. 



36 



CHAPTER IV. r 



Canada's 



"PROM an American point of view, it 



Rights. 



IS much to be deplored that the 
region now being invaded by thous- 
ands of gold seekers is under the 
control of the Canadian Govern- 
ment. Dawson Citj'-, and the lands 
adjacent thereto, where gold mining 
present being conducted, are, un- 
the boundaries of the territory 
The 141st Meridian is recognized 
United States and 
possibility .of 



no 



operations are at 

doubtedly, within 

owaed by Canada. 

as the dividing line between the 

the British possessions, and there is 

friction between the respective governments as to the 

line of demarcation, the latter being purely a matter for 

scientific determination. At the point where the 

Yukon River intersects the line, the difierence in 

locating the Meridian is but 350 feet. 

The unpleasant feature of the situation arises, how- 
ever, in the fact that Canada, as oflScially announced, is 
determined to levy tribute on the successful miners to 

the extent of twenty per cent, 
upon the gross findings of those 
who win $500 per month, and 
ten per cent, upon the earnings 
of those whose receipts fall 
below the sum stated. The 
mining prospector will also have 
to pa}', to the Dominion Gov- 
ernment, a fee of Si 5 upon stak- 
ing out a mining claim, and an 
annual assessment of $100 on 
to the percentage referred to. 







such claim, in addition 

But the rapacity of the Canadian authorities does not ter- 
minate even at the point described. Each alternate claim 



\ 



CANADA'S RIGHTS. 



37 




113 HiutS 



is to be reserved b}^ the Government, and held for sale, 
tinder the presumption that the development of the ad- 
joining claims (whenever the latter should prove specially 
productive), will enable the authorities to secure large 
speculative prices for the claims held back. The whole 
of the policy indicated savors 
of uncompromising selfishness, 
and it is certainly not calcu 
lated to strengthen the friendly 
relations supposed to exist be- 
tween citizens of the United 
States and Canada. I see, in- 
deed, the prospect of grave 
trouble should the policy de- 
scribed be rigidly observed and 
carried out. In the first instance, 
in what manner is the collection of the per centage, on 
gold dust won by the miner, to bt made? Every mining 
claim would have to be carefully watched, night and 
diy, during the period when the pay dirt is washed. 
To carry out such an exhaustive scrutiny would neces- 
sitate the employment of about as many policeman as 
there are claim workers. It seems, therefore, that an 
attempt to compel payment of the proposed royalty may 
be forcibly resisted. A bare show of such resistance, on 
the part of but a few determined miners, would speedily 
lead to an organization of the entire mining population, 
and the Canadian officials would have to face a collision 
which might result in riot and bloodshed. The authori- 
ties at Ottawa have, at present, no such f(~rce in the 
g''l(l-hearing region as would be efficient for the purpose 
of effecting complete surveillance, and they could not 
pI.K-e upon the ground a sufficient force until after the 
la, sc of a long period. 

The Nnu York Sun recently published a leader on 
this subject, from which the following pertinent extracts 
are made: "We advise the Canadian Government to 
Diove slowly in the matter of plundering American 
miners. It is a poor rule that will not work both ways, 
and the means of retaliation will be ready to our hands 



ACROSTIC. 

K londyke, thou hast a reputation made, 

L oud are the echoes of the pick and spade ; 

O ut of thy hidden treasures men may find 

N ewest of gold— and yet no quartz to grind : 

D own in thy depths lie sands with wealth untold ; 

Y ears may elapse ere all thy claims be sold : 

K ill not the hosts that clamor at ihy gate, 

E asy 'twould be, but spare them from ill fate. 




CHART SHOWING DIVIDING LINE BETWEEN AMERtCAN AND 
BRITISH POSSESSIONS- 



CANADA'S RIGHTS. 39 

There is reason to believe that the largest portion of the 
gold deposits made by the tributaries of the Yukon lies 
within American territory, and the next deposits of 
Startling richness are expected to be found in that 
quarter. When the migration takes place, as soon or 
late it will, to such new-found diggings the American 
miners, smarting under the eflfort to wring royalties 
from them at Klondyke, will not wait for Congress to 
act in the premises; they will take the law into their 
own hands and ruthlessly bar Canadians out of all min- 
ing camps on American soil. The demand, hitherto 
unheeded, for the suppression of the bonding privileges 
now enjoyed by Canadian railways, will become loud, 
firm and irresistible. At present, as every one knows, 
Canadian railwa5^s are allowed, through the liberality 
of our Government, to transport imported goods in bond 
from our seacoast to American consumers in the far 
West, whereas the same commodities, if they are to be 
transported over American lines, must pay only at the 
port of entry. Such flagrant discrimination against 
American railways in favor of foreigij rivals will not be 
for a moment tolerated by the people of this country 
after the rapacious and hostile spirit of the Dominion 
Government shall have been unmistakably disclosed by 
an attempt to rob American miners of the fruit of the 
fearful hardships and sufferings incident to labor in the 
ice-bound soil of the Arctic gold fields. When Califor- 
nia's gold diggings were discovered British subjects 
were welcomed to a share of the precious harvest. Our 
Federal authorities would have scorned to shut out or to 
harass by the levying of royalties the Argonauts of '49, no 
matter from what foreign land they hailed. The Dominion 
Government may do wisely to profit by our example. ' ' 

Many other papers have expressed strong opinions 
upon the action of the Dominion Government in regard 
to the attempted spoliation of the industrious American 
miner ; but the Nc-w York Journal indulges in language 
which, although perhaps subject to rebuke in some 
quarters, will, in my opinion, meet with unqualified 
approval on the part of the average American citizen. 



40 



THE KLONDYKE GOLD FIELDS. 




I cannot do better than place tlie article in question 
upon permanent record. " We doubt if ihe men at the 
head of affairs in Canada will be so short sighted as to 
decree that no citizen of the United States shall be per- 
mitted to dig for gold in the 
Dominion. Such a decree, how- 
ever well warranted on grounds 
of retaliation, would prove ex- 
tremel}^ irritating to this coun- 
try, and it is profoundly to Can- 
ada's interest, as she regards it, 
notto jar the temper of the over- 
shadowing Republic. Let the 
decree issue, and everv Ameri- 
can who is not a Mugwump 
would be moved to say to his neighbor : ' We can't dig 
for gold in Klondyke, it appears, because Klondyke is 
in Canada. All right, let's transfer Klondyke to the 
United States.' Of course this transfer might not be 
made at once, but beyond question the public mind 
would be aroused to the inconvenience and absurdity of 
allowing a European monarchy to divide this continent 
with us, and interfere with the freedom and business 
activity of Americans on the American side of the world. 
The reasonableness, as well as the material advantage, 
of annexing Canada would be impressed upon great 
multitudes who have never as yet given the subject a 
thought. And it is as manifest as destiny that when 
the United States really wants Canada, Canada will 
belong to the United States. 

"Unless, therefore, the Canadians desire to speed 
the coming of the day when they will be invited to come 
into the Union — with all the property of which they are 
possessed, including gold fields — with the alternative of 
cutting loose from dear old England and setting up a 
republic of their own, like grown men and Americans, 
they will not command citizens of the United States to 
keep off the Klondyke grass." 

There is no kind of a joke involved in this contro- 
versy. On the contrary the most serious *dej)artures 



CANADA'S RIGHTS. 41 

may be on the threshold of coming events I am not 
one of those who believe that a stiite ot war caT ever 
exist between England and the United States The bare 
siiggestion IS revolting and opposed to common sense 
Yet It IS too frequently the unexpected which occurs, 
and when the possession of gold is the object to be 
attained, men lose their wits and perpetrate acts of follv 
which under ordinary circumstances, they would be re- 
strained from committing. 

This chapter cannot well be closed without a refer 
ence to the duties payable under the Canadian tariff 

Hn'JL^'S'^^ ^^7'^*^ ^^^^ t^^ Klondyke region from 
United States territory. A complete tariff schedule 
would scarcely interest the reader, but would occupy 
considerable space. The following list of duties is 
therefore, given as information likely to be of practicai 
use for ready reference : <^^^^^<i-i 



Ale, Beer, etc 16c. per gal. 

^°?,a?als 20^ adv. 

Umlders' Hardware. .32i<^ " 

Butter 4c''per lb. 

Beans 15c. per bush. 

Buckwheat 10c. " 

Boots and Shoes 255^ ad v. 

Clothing, ready-made, 

5c. per lb. and 30^ " 

Candles 25^^ » 

Coffee, ground or roasted, ' 

2c. per lb. 

Coffee, green .10^ ad v. 

Cliee.se 3c. per lb. 

Condensed Milk 3c. »' 

Eggs 5c. per doz. 

Extracts of Meat 25^ ad v 

flour 75c. per bbl. 

Jellies, Jams, etc... , . .3c. per lb. 

Lard 2c. " 

Meats, in barrel 2c. " 

Meats, canned 25^^ ad v. I 

CANADIAN MINING 

Bar-diggings. A strip 
bigh water-mark, and thenci 
to its lowest water level. 



Nails and Spikes 30^ ad v. 

Potatoes 15c. per bush. 

Picks and Tools of 

^ all kinds zni, adv. 

Quicksilver Yree 

Rubber Boots and 

„ Shoes 30^ .adv. 

bait, m bags 7.^0. 100 lbs. 

bhovels and Spades. . .25^ ad v. 

Sugar (J4-100 of Ic. per lb. 

Spirits 12.12+ per gal. 

Soap, common ic. per lb. 

Tomatoes and other 
vegetables, includ- 
ing Corn and Baked 
Beans, in cans ^c per lb. 

Tarred Paper 25;^ ad v. 

Tobacco, manufact'd, 

35c. per lb. and 12^^ ad v. 

lea lo^g " 

Wire Nails Ic. per lb. 

Wines 25c. per gal. 

LAWS — IN BRIEF. 

of land roo feet wide at 

extending along the river 

The sides of a claim for 



42 THE KLONDYKE GOLD FIELDS. 

bar-diggings shall be two parallel lines run as nearly as 
possible at right angles to the stream, and shall be 
marked by four legal posts, one at each end of the claim, 
at or about high water-mark ; also one at each end of the 
claim, at or about the edge of the water One of the 
posts shall be legibly marked with the name of the miner, 
and the date upon which the claim is staked. 

Creek and river claims shall be 500 feet long, meas- 
ured in the direction of the mineral course of the stream, 
and shall extend in width from base to base of the hill 
or bench on each side, but when the hills or benches are 
less than 100 feet apart the claim may be 100 feet in 
depth. 

In defining the size of claims they shall be meas- 
ured horizontally, irrespective of inequalities on the 
surface of the ground. 

A claim shall be recorded with the gold commis- 
sioner in whose district it is situated within three days 
after the location thereof. 

No miner shall receive a grant for more than one 
mining claim in the same locality, but the same miner 
may hold any number of claims by purchase. 

Any miner may sell, mortgage or dispose of his 
claim provided such disposal be registered with, and a 
fee of $5 paid to, the gold commissioner. 

A claim shall be deemed to be abandoned and open 
to occupation and entry by any person when the same 
shall have remained unworked on working days by the 
grantee thereof, or by some person in his behalf, for the 
space of seventy-two hours, unless sickness or other 
reasonable cause may be shown to the satisfaction of the 
commissioner. 



"Gold is typical of the Sun — the golden sunshine 
which lightens the universe — the center of creation — the 
golden orb which proclaims its eternal magnificence." 

— Paul Pryer. 



43 



GIVEN the possession of the necessary 
funds it is b}" no means difficult to 

solve the problem of ' ' How to get 

How to there." There is practically no 

_ _. spot on the habitable globe which 

nere, _ cannot be reached with speed and 

What to Carry, comfort if one is able to lay down 

the price of the journey. The 
What to Do. North Pole may be excepted ; but, 

then, the Pole is not included in 
"habitable territory." Perhaps the most uncomforta- 
ble journey that could be made, as compared with any 
other in the world, is, under existing conditions, the 
one to Klondyke. Were I upon the point of starting for 
that region I should select the route via Juneau. This 
is termed the overland route and I am aware that it is 
not recommended by exj^erts as the one most preferable. 
But, accepting all the chances, I repeat that I should 
personally select it. The distance from San Francisco 
by steamer to Juneau is about i,68o miles and can be 
traversed in comfort. Then the journey from Juneau 
to Dyea, loo miles, is made by water, after which the 
troubles commence. I cannot do better than give the 
experience of E. A. Mizner, an agent of the Alaska 
Commercial Company, regarding a part of the journey. 
He knows how to write and his words are : " The sec- 
ond day we went up Dyea canon. It is only three miles 
long, but seems fully thirty. One hundred pounds is 
about all a man wants to pull in this canon, as the way 
is steep and the ice slippery. So camps must be made 
shortdistances apart, as you have to go over the trail 
several times in bringing up your outfit. Remember an 
ordinary outfit weighs from 500 to 800 pounds, and 
some much more. But the summit of the Chilcoot Pass 



44 THE KLONYDKE GOLD FIELDS. 

—that's the place that puts the yellow fear into many a 
man's heart. Some took one look at it, sold their out- 
fits for what they would bring, and turned back. This 
pass is over the ridge that skirts the coast. It is only 
about 1 ,200 feet from base to top, but it is almost straight 
up and down — a sheer steep of snow and ice. There is 
a blizzard blowing there most of the time, and when it is 
at its height no man may cross. For days at a time the 
summit is impassable. An enterprising man named 
Burns rigged a windlass and cable there, and with this 
he hoists up some freight at a cent a pound. The rest 
is carried over on the backs of Indians. We were de- 
tained ten days waiting our turn to have our outfits car- 
ried over and for favoring weather. After going about 
three miles up a dark canon a whirling snow storm 
struck us. But having risen at such an unconscionable 
hour we would not turn back. Our pride was near being 
the end of us. I hope I may never experience such an- 
other day. The air was so filled with snow that at times 
it was impossible to see ten feet. My beard became a 
mass of ice. The trail was soon obliterated and we were 
lost. But we stumbled on and by a rare chance we came 
upon the handle of a shovel which marked our cache. 
There was nothing to do but fight our way back to camp. 
The storm raged for four long days. After another day 
of rest we put masts on our sleds, rigged sails and came 
across Lake Linderman and over Linderman Portage. " 
The remainder of the journey may be thus described : 
After leaving Linderman there is an overland tramp of 
twenty-eight miles to Lake Bennett. Again you pro- 
ceed on foot several miles, until the caribou crossing of 
the river furnishes transportation to Tagish Lake, where 
another ride of twenty-one miles by boat may be had. 
After this there is a weary stretch of mountainous coun- 
try which brings you to Mud Lake. Then follows 
another boat ride of twenty-four miles, and subsequently 
down the creek for twenty-seven miles to Miles Canon 
and White Horse Rapids. The stream here is full of 
sunken rocks and runs with the speed of a mill race, and 
is full of danger. The next stage after passing the IJors^ 








J , THf iCtCUlJ 
' MOUNTAINS 



WHAT TO CARRY. 45 

Rapids is down the river for thirty miles to Lake I,a- 
barge where thirty-one more miles of navigable water is 
lound After a short distance of portage Lewis River is 
reached and a 200-mile journey encountered, bnneine 
you to Fort Selkirk. Here the 
Pelly and Lewis rivers combine, 
forming the Yukon, and from 
that point on it is comparatively 
smooth sailing. It is perhaps 
needless to observe that the 
journey throughout is extremely 
dangerous if undertaken too 
early in the spring or too late in 
the fall. My judgment in pre-^^^ 
ferring the overland route is, to ^^ 
some extent justified in the fact that the post office au- 
thorities will run a monthly service, for letter mail only, 
via the Chilcoot Pass. 

The ocean route is via St. Michaels, which can be 
reached by steamer from San Francisco, Seattle, Port- 
land and other points. After leaving St. Michaels the 
journey up the Yukon River is one of considerable mon- 
otony, and, m passing through the rapids, is attended 
by danger; but a vast number of people, both going and 
returning, are traveling that way. It should be observed 
that the ocean route is found to be the most expensive 
as It IS infinitely longer, and it would serve no good pur- 
pose to furnish any detailed description regarding it in 
these pages I had almost forgotten to mention a third 
route, which was suggested to me by a humorist, who 
referred to it as not only safe and in every way prefera- 
ble, and he described it as the stay-at-home route 

What to Carry. In discussing this question 
which is certainly an all-important one, the first word of 
advice would be-take as little as possible. So much 
depends on one's personal wants or ideas. One man will 
cross the Atlantic with a satchel, a tooth brush and a 
change of linen. Another thinks himself poorly furn- 
ished with SIX trunks and a valet. The thing to be re- 
membered, however, is that all supplies at Dawson City 



46 THE KLONDYKE GOLD FIELDS. 

are dear beyond comparison. On the other hand, the 
difficulty and risk of conveying large quantities of goods 
have to be considered, and, while it is extremely per- 
plexing to draw any hard and fast line, the better plan 
would be to provide necessaries and in such quantities as 
individual judgment may prompt. In preparing a final 
list the ambitious explorer would naturally purchase, 
before starting, such goods as are the cheapest in com- 
parison with the prices demanded at Dawson City. The 
most accurate schedule of the latter is the following, but 
they may, and probably will, advance next season : 

Dried Fruits, per pot 35 

Canned Fruif 50 

Canned Meats 75 

Lemons, each 20 

Oranges, each 50 

Tobacco, per lb 1.50 

Liquors, per drink 50 

Shovels 2.50 

Picks 5.00 

Coal Oil, per gal 1.00 

Overalls 1.50 

Underwear, per suit, |5 to 7.50 

Shoes 5.00 

Rubber Boots $10 to 15.00 



Flour, per 100 lbs $12.00 

Moose Hams, per lb 1.00 

Caribou Meat, per lb 65 

Beans, per lb .10 

Rice, per lb 25 

Sugar, per lb 25 

Bacon, per lb 40 

Butter, per roll 1 50 

Eggs, per doz 1.50 

Better Eggs, per doz 2.00 

Salmon, each |1 to 1.50 

Potatoes, per lb 25 

Turnips, per lb 15 

Tea, per lb 1.00 

CojEfee, per lb 50 



Miners should carry with them, a tent, a rubber 
blanket, mosquito netting, a frying pan, a kettle, a bean 
pot, a Yukon stove, a teapot, knife, fork and spoon, a 
drinking cup, two plates, one large and one small cook- 
ing pan. Also, a jack plane, a hand saw, a rip saw, a 
whipsaw, an axe, a hatchet, a draw-knife, six pounds 
assorted nails, three pounds oakum, fifty feet ^ rope, 
three pounds of pitch, and a pick and shovel. 

Supplies for a month are about as follows : 20 lbs. 
flour, baking powder, 12 lbs. bacon, 6 lbs. beans, 5 lbs. 
canned vegetables, 5 lbs. dried fruit, 4 lbs. butter, 5 lbs. 
sugar, 4 cans milk, i lb. tea, 3 lbs coffee, 2 lbs. salt, 5 
lbs. corn meal, mustard and pepper. Don't forget 
matches. 

Clothing should include, water boots of seal or wal- 
rus skin, Siberian fawn skin trousers, a parka — costs 



JV/fAT TO no. 



47 



from $25 to $100, is almost cold proof and is made from 
Siberian fawn skin, trimmed with wolverine — good warm 
flannels and rubber boots. Fur robes and blankets are 
used for bedding. 

No man should start for the gold fields with less 
than $600, but it would be much safer to have $1,000. 
The great thing to be feared during the coming winter 
is famine and famine prices. The amount of food re- 
quired by heart}' men is beyond belief. Last winter men 
suffered intensely because they could not secure a variety 
of food, which their systems craved. 

What to do ? These words recall to my mind the 
refrain of an exquisite poem 
which, in a happy metre, re- ac<h>*4^^ 
peats the words "If we only ^"'^""/^ 
knew, if we only knew." Alas ! 
That is the trouble in this life. 
If we only knew precisely 
what to attempt, and the best 
and readiest means of procuring 
its accomplishment, we should 
be able to avoid so many of 
those grave errors which turn 

men out of the right path and lead them to disap- 
pointments, failures and disasters. Every fal.^c 
step means two or more steps backward. But to be 
practical : the man who possesses the hardiest constitu- 
tion, the readiest wit, the most indomitable perseverance, 
the greatest degree of patience, and who is endowed 
with the most liberal measure of hopefulness, should be 
the one to succeed the best. Against this reasoning 
our old friend "Luck" steps forward and exclaims "No ! 
You cannot force circumstances, and they will invariably 
prevail against you when they are adverse. I am the 
goddess of fortune, and circumstances, as applied to 
mankind, are my foot-ball. I can lift the tenderfoot 
into the realm of prosperity, and it is equally in my 
power to paralyse the efforts of the most deserving and 
industrious. Hence, I make men my playthings, and 
give sometimes to the unworthy that which I take from 




48 THE KLONDYKE GOLD FIELDS. 

those who appear to have the strongest claims on my 
generosity. I am a woman, and it is my whim." The 
reader will perceive that such logic is unanswerable and 
so it will always happen, even at the gold fields, that 
some will prosper exceedingly with but meagre effort, 
while others will fight hard for little or no reward. 

Seeing that so many, if not all, of the claims around 
the Klondyke are staked out, there is nothing left for 
the new-comer but to prospect. That is work to make 
a man eat his heart out when nothing be found to 
reward the effort. But there are many creeks and rivers 
in the immense region of which Dawson City is the 
centre, and the gold seeker who cannot find anything 
from $10,000 to $250,000, wherewith to purchase a share 
in a claim, must travel further afield, unless he can sell 
his services as a laborer to some established miner. 
Speaking generally, the thing to do is to avoid idleness ; 
to eschew drink, gambling, and dissipation ; to be civil 
and kind to everyone — i. e. , to make as many friends as 
possible, and to make the best use of every opportunity 
that may arise, of which there will be many. But let us 
turn for one moment, to the experience of George 
Cormac, who is credited with being the discoverer of the 
Klondyke bonanza. George Cormac had lived for 
twenty years under the Arctic Circle, and, in all that 
time, had made little money. He went up to the 
confluence of the Klondyke and Yukon rivers to fish for 
salmon. He arrived at the place in June, 1896. The 
salmon did not run, and he had recourse to prospecting 
in the creeks that empty into the Klondyke a few miles 
above its mouth. He had heard that the territory had 
been prospected by experts, who had decided that there 
was no gold in paying qua7itities north of the Yukon^ and 
especially in the British possessions. Assisted by two 
Indians, he continued to prospect in the Yukon fashion. 
He cut wood and set fires every night to thaw out the 
frozen gravel, and by day, dug out the earth thus 
loosened. In about ten days, bed-rock was reached at a 
depth of fifteen feet, when, to Cormac's amazement, he 
was able to pan out from $50 to $100 in coarse gold from 



WHAT TO DO. 49 

each pan. Provisions being nearly exhausted, he sent 
an Indian to Fort}' Mile Post, a distance of fifty-two 
miles, for supplies, and, at the same time, he sent 
messages to several friends who speedilj^ arrived on the 
ground and staked out claims. Nearly three months 
elapsed before the arrival of an adequate supply 
of provisions, and tools to work the claims effectually. 
Several thousands of dollars worth of gold dust were 
then taken out, and it was the return of two of the party 
to Forty Mile Post, late in the fall of 1896, which led to 
the rush to this little camp. 

As in other matters, there will always be conflicting 
stories regarding the earlier pioneers of gold discoveries, 
but exhaustive inquir)- convinces me that the account, 
as here rendered, is truthful. In winding up this 
chapter, I would say to the reader, "go thou and do 
likewise," — if you be bent on visiting the Klondyke — 
and may you live long and prosper. 

"You must wake and call me early, 

Call me early, mother dear; 
At a quarter after nine the aliip 

Is advertised to clear. 
Eleven days I've stood it off 

And tried to keep it down; 
But I'll be goshed if I remain — 

The only man in town. 
My temperature is going up. 

The fever's in my veins. 
The gold cure is the thing I need; 

I'll take it in large grains. 
Quite long enough I've walked the hill 

To save the cable fare; 
Too long the grindstone's done its worst; 

My nose won't stand the wear. 
The frozen North is getting warm 

With nuggets thick as flies, 
A man now has a chance to win 

A fortune ere he dies. 
I've pan and sliovel, lots of grub, 

Warm clothing, rubber boots, 
So wake and call me early 

When the Klondyke steamer toots." 

— Fro)a the Seattle Post-I/itellif/encer. 




A DOG TEAM ON THE CHILCOOT PASS. 



51 



THE discovery of gold in California in 
1848 was the commencement of a 

new and wonderful era in its his- 
Enter prises. tory. During several centuries the 

conquerors of Mexico were con- 
vinced that the western coast of America must be rich in 
gold, and mining expeditions were organized in order to 
test their theory. But in spite of all their efforts the 
precious yellow metal remained hidden from the eye of 
man for three hundred years longer. For a long period, 
prior to the day on which James Marshall picked the 
shining particles from the millrace at Coloma, the idea 
of finding gold in any part of that country had been so 
entirely abandoned that it was stated in the "Penny 
Encyclopedia, " published in 1836, that "In mineral, 
upper California is not rich." It was a fortunate cir- 
cumstance for the United States that such a conclusion 
prevailed, for had the hidden wealth of California been 
made known to the world a few years earlier, Mexico 
would never have sold, for the paltry sum of $15,000,- 
000, the immense territory of which California is but a 
minor part, and it is not improbable we might never have 
been able to purchase it upon any terms. 

It was through the merest accident that the discov- 
ery of gold, an event of infinite importance to California, 
to the United States, and to the whole world, actually 
resulted. General Nelson A. Miles, in his "Personal 
Recollections," gives a graphic account of the incident, 
from which I quote as follows : "In 1847, among the 
most prominent Americans in California was General 
John A Sutter, who had acquired many acres of land 
there. In the summer of that year, he began to perceive 
the necessity for a sawmill, and as there was no timber 
in the valley he was obliged to have the mill erected in 



52 



THE KLONDYKE GOLD FIELDS. 




\ PLACER, Mine. 

TIHE KLONOtKt 



the mountains. To build it he engaged James W. Mar- 
shall, who was to supply the skill and choose the site, 
while Sutter furnished the money, workmen and teams. 
Mr. Marshall selected a site at the spot afterwards known 

as Coloma, and for four months 
he and his workmen remained 
in the midst of a primeval wild- 
erness engaged in the construc- 
tion of the mill. At the end of 
that time the structure was 
nearly completed, the dam had 
been made, the race had been 
dug, the gates had been put in 
place, the water had been 
turned into the race to carry 
away the loose dirt and gravel, and then turned off 
again, and on the morning of the 24th of January, 1848, 
Marshall, while taking his usual walk along the race 
after shutting off the water, was attracted by a small 
shining object about half the size of a pea. He hastily 
picked it up, and the results of his find are known to all 
the world. Marshall himself received ver}^ little benefit 
from his discovery. Had notoriety been enough to sat- 
isfy him he might have been well content, for his name 
became widely celebrated, but, as he once naively re- 
marked, that was " neither victuals nor clothes to any 
one." Owing to this neglect he gradually became em- 
bittered against all mankind, and after spending the last 
years of his life in poverty and privation, he died in 
1885, at the age of 73, and was buried at a spot within 
sight of the place where he made his famous discovery. 
His figure in colossal bronze has since been erected over 
his grave and stands like a sentinel guarding the spot 
where the great event of his life occurred. It was an 
event which affected very many lives for weal or woe, 
which turned the tide of emigration from all parts of the 
world to California, which caused the development of the 
neighboring States, and which finally made necessary 
the building of the great trans-continental railroads. 

" The impetus thus given to emigration, which was 



ENTERPRISES. 53 

felt all over the globe, increased the scanty population 
of California to such an extent that, by the end of 1849, 
there were more than a hundred thousand people within 
her borders. Naturally, this was not a healthy growth, 
for there was much reckless speculation and extravagant 
living, which had its demoralizing influence upon the 
inhabitants. lyife in California at that time was a kind 
of pandemonium. Thousands of men were constantly 
leaving and arriving ; money was plentiful and freely 
spent ; miners who had made their fortunes in a few 
days squandered them in a single night at the gaming 
table. There were but few women in the entire 
territory, and all good influences were chiefly conspicu- 
ous by their absence. The whole population of the 
towns and mining camps consisted of unkempt men clad 
in flannel shirts, patched clothing and heavy boots, and 
the hearts of all Avere animated by one great impulse — 
the thirst for gold. There was, however, a strong touch 
of sentiment in their rough lives ; as for instance, when 
an intense excitement was one day created in a small 
town by a rumor that an invoice of women's bonnets 
had arrived — there was a rush from every direction to 
get a view of them. The sight of anything so intensely 
feminine as a bonnet touched the hearts of those rough 
men, and awakened in their breasts thoughts and 
feelings that had long lain dormant." 

I have devoted space, which can be spared with 
difficulty, to this short history of California with the 
object, not only of showing how the great gold dis- 
coveries of the far north may bring about social and 
physical changes, but of demonstrating the probabilities 
that exist of the development of those combined efforts 
of mankind referred to at the head of this chapter as 
"Enterprises" 

"Thus far into the bowels of the land 
Have we raarch'd on without impediment." 

Shaks.: Richard III. 

Enterprise in every conceivable form follows in the 
foqtsteps of successful gold mining just as w^ter forces 



54 



THE KLONDYKE GOLD FIELDS. 



its way into a newly constructed channel. The diffi- 
culties to be surmounted in connection with the 
development of the northern portion of Alaska are 
stupendous, the chief obstacles being the climate and 

the wild character of the coun- 
try. But even at this early 
date thousands of active minds 
are vigorously at work formu- 
lating plans, not only for pros- 
pecting for gold, but for con- 
structing roads, erecting dwell- 
ings and for conveying into the 
inhospitable territory the nec- 
essaries and, to some extent, 
the comforts of life. To fur- 
detailed description of all the schemes pro- 
is impossible. The Government is already 




flCI^OSS LAKE &EMNE.TT. 
59 M11.E5, 



nish a 
j acted 

alive to the necessity of providing better postal facilities 
and will shortly be on hand with troops for the 
protection of the far distant adventurers. There is 
substantial talk of laying a telegraph cable from Dawson 
City to Juneau, not suspended on poles but roughly 
carried over the ground, and this enterprise, if 
completely developed, in spite of the really serious 
obstacles which would have to be surmounted, will be of 
untold value to a remote community and also to those 
who desire to direct operations from eastern and other 
centres. Another proposal is to supply specially 
constructed bicycles which can carry heavy loads of 
freight, and I hear that a company has been organized 
for the manufacture of this newly "patented" inno- 
vation, but I regard the idea as chimerical and do not 
covet possession of stock in such a concern. 

Sufficient has been stated in preceding pages to lead 
to the conclusion that even if gold mining, taken as a 
whole, be not profitable to the majority of its adherents, 
it does, at any rate, open the door to vast commercial 
transactions. With a glass of beer selling at Dawson 
City for fifty cents and board and lodging unobtainable 
at less than $io daily ; with saloon-keepers turning 



ENTERPRISES, 



55 



over as much as $20,000 within a few weeks, and 
successful miners spending, in some instances, as much 
as $500 in a single day, there can be no question that 
trade, pure and simple, in the Klondyke region, is on 
the boom. The mouth of the practical merchant must, 
indeed, literally run with water when visions of such 
profitable trading operations as may be carried on 
around the Klondyke are unfolded. Trade in that new, 
undeveloped country is likely to increase to an extent 
that the ordinary mind can scarcely realize. With the 
advent of a possible twenty or thirty thousand persons 
at the Klondyke, up to the month of June, next (very 
few of whom will, notwithstanding all warnings, carry 
with them any adequate amount of supplies), and with 
a probable increase in population to, say, forty thousand 
during the following year, an amount of money will be 
turned over — at the high prices which obtain and which 
must continue to rule— from which fabulous profits will 
be derived by those who devote their exclusive attention 
to plain buying and selling. The merchant, in the long 
run, is invariably more successful than the adventurer ; 
just as is the quiet patient investor more prosperous than 
the mere speculator. Except- 
tions prove the rule. Better 
facilities for transportation of 
goods to the gold region will, in 
time, be provided, involving 
again, another form of enter- 
prise, and, in this category, 
may be mentioned the projec- 
tion of a light railway which, 
although regarded in some 
quarters as a Utopian idea, will 
I believe be constructed, and which will infinitely 
lessen the difficulties now existing in regard to the 
conveyance of freight and passengers after the journey 
up the Yukon River has been continued to the 
furthest limit. 

Again, in the light of special enterprise, one has 
pleasure in referring to the expedition recently fitted out 




ENTERPRISES. 57 

by the Nac York Journal which, to use its own well- 
chosen words, is "to investigate the riches of the Yukon 
gold fields and to tell the tale of Nature and human nat- 
ure in the new Ophir of the far North." The /oHr?ia/ 
staff consists of happily selected men, and a woman, 
whose names are well worth recording. Edward H. 
Hamilton, Charles Gregory Yale, Joaquin Miller, the poet, 
Edward J. Livernash and Mrs. Norman Brough, known 
to the world as " Helen Dare," constitute the little band 
of explorers who are braving the terrors of the northern 
winter, and who will next summer confront the attacks 
of the terrible mosquito, not in search of filthy lucre, but 
of news. All who appreciate journalistic enterprise can- 
not but hail with admiration its latest development, but. 
like all other enterprises judiciously conducted, it will 
undoubtedly pay from a commercial point of view. 

It would not appear, however, that the leading in- 
surance companies are anxious for " Klondyke busi- 
ness." Their desire for "premiums" is tempered by 
much discretion, for they are, it appears, pc sitively in- 
structing their general agents not to assume risks upon 
the lives of persons who contemplate visiting the gold 
region. I have not, in my experience, found that the 
financiers and underwriters who bet upon the lives of 
their fellow creatures give very much away. They 
have their uses like house flies and other annoyances 
and they do not hide their lights or their prospectuses 
under bushels ; but, in consequence of that healthy 
competition which permeates even the atmosphere of 
the professional actuary, they have reduced premiums, 
during late years, to a level which leaves them 
reasonable, in place of exorbitant profits. No doubt, in 
time, they will cater more liberally for the patronage of 
even a Klondyke explorer. 

Even old England has caught the "Klondyke 
fever" and the spirit of enterprise has entered the 
hearts of London's financiers. The latest news is that a 
company has been organized over the water which 
proposes carrying out on the Yukon what the chartered 
South African Company has effected in Africa. The 



58 



THE KLONDYKE GOLD FIELDS. 




ice. 



company seeks a charter from the Government giving it 
the right to build and govern cities, maintain militia, 
build railroads and, in fact, to do just as they feel 
inclined. It is a very large order but I think Uncle 
Sam will keep well ahead in the business. 

Once more enterprise is to the fore as represented 
by some concern in New York which offers to convey 
people all the way from the East to the gold fields for the 
sum of $103.25. I do not believe they can do it and 

make money, but what worries 
me, more particularly, is the 25 
cents. It looks like a fake. 
Other forms of enterprise, and 
here we approach a subject of 
the most serious moment, are 
in evidence through the loud 
appeals for money being made 
by company promoters, gentry 
who are dangerous to the com- 
munity and, as a rule, utterly 
unscrupulous in their dealings. I have been at some 
pains to obtain inside information regarding many of the 
advertised schemes. My table is littered with prospect- 
uses, nearly all of which bear unmistakably the hall- 
mark of the confidence genius. Investors beware ! In 
the greedy rush for Klondyke gold dust people who can 
not go are apt to hand over their savings in exchange 
for sweetly attractive chromos representing ' ' full-paid 
and non-assessable stock." I would impress upon the 
reader the fact that stock issued and purchased below its 
par value, that is, at a reduced price, cannot be non-as- 
sessable. Such stock carries with it a heavy and indefi- 
nate liability and should be avoided like a leper. Un- 
fortunately it is next to impossible to investigate these 
concerns. Their prospectuses disclose nothing that 
should, of right, be made known to the investor. The 
profits to be secured by the promoters, the salaries and 
expenses to be paid, the friends to be placed in office, 
and the channels carefully cut for absorbing the compa- 
ny's funds, in a legal manner^ are systematically wUli- 



ENTERPRISES. 



5$ 



lield. It is, indeed, a pity that when legitimate enter- 
prise is so loudly called for, and when such exceptionally 
splendid opportunities exist for its creation and develop- 
ment, the ground should be occupied by so many hypo- 
crites and irresponsible adventurers seeking whom they 
may devour. 

Many companies are being formed in New York and 
elsewhere in which but a few wealthy men are associ- 
ated. These may be described as high-class projects in 
which the general public are precluded from securing an 
interest. This brings me back to the mere capitalist 
who, guided by his native instinct, is always on the 
watch for opportunity, and his money is abundantly 
ready the moment he perceives that an investment may 
be productive. And he does not look for two or three 
hundred per cent, like a gold miner. A comparatively 
moderate return satisfies him. Hence no long time is 
likely to elapse before the frozen wilds, which now al- 
most forbid locomotion even in utter discomfort and not 
unattended by danger, will be traveled with some degree 
of speed and under conditions which would, at least, re- 
lieve men from acting as beasts of burden In the mean- 
while the merchant will continue to thrive, and millions 
of dollars will be made by those who possess the requi- 
site capital, who have the courage to embark it, and who 
are gifted with that peculiar tal- 
ent which, in trade, lifts a man 
from penury to wealth. So far, 
trade will, according to my 
lights, be found more perma- 
nently profitable than gold min- 
ing, and I heartily commend 
these observations, founded as 
they are upon practical experi- 
ence in several parts of the 
world, to the attention and con- 
sideration of those who prefer to carry on business in a 
wild and unsettled country rather than in a slow, prosy, 
though comfortable, city, in the heart of civilization, 
where competition kills profit. 




6o THE KLONDYKE GOLD FIELDS. 

Returning, once more, to the subject of investments, 
which is an all-important one, I should contradict my 
own words, as they appear in the chapter devoted to 
"gold mining," were I to sweepingly assert that it is 
altogether impossible to discover suitable investments 
for comparatively small sums of money. It being my 
intention to write further upon the ' ' Klondyke Gold 
Fields " I am naturally anxious to secure the support of 
those of my readers who may regard this, my first issue, 
as useful or entertaining. Should, therefore, any 
inquiries reach me regarding the advisability of 
investing in any particular stock, I will reply to all such 
communications promptly, provided they contain a 
stamped and addressed envelope. I shall make it my 
business to watch all opportunities for investment and I 
may be the means of saving some of my readers heavy 
loss, if not of enabling them to secure profitable and safe 
investments. In a previous chapter I stated the 
possibility of my journeying to the Klondyke region, 
but I should only do so if backed up by a strong 
company, founded upon strictly honest lines, and it may 
be that such an organization ma)^ yet be brought into 
existence. The field is wide and there is ample room 
for all. Communications will reach me addressed, 

C. ALEXANDER PIvEMPEL, 

P. O. Box 942, 

BAI.TIMORE, Md. 

" If a boundless plenty be the robe. 

Trade is the golden girdle of the globe. 
Wise to promote whatever end he means, 
God opens fruitful Nature's various scenes. 

Each climate needs what other climes produce, 

And offers something to the general use ; 
No land but listens to the common call. 
And in return receives supply from all." 

— Cowper. 



6i 



CHAPTER VII 

Tailings. 



N' 



O gold mine was ever worked with- 
out producing tailings, which are 
sometimes of great value. Having 
presented all the nuggets available, 
I will wind up these pages with a 
few scraps and incidents that may be found interesting. 
It has been estimated that the claims already staked 
out on the Klondyke will produce $50,000,000 worth of 
gold, all of which may be taken out within a year. 

The demand for miners' outfits at Seattle is simply 
enormous, and storekeepers are working night and day. 
One might do worse than start business in Seattle. 

Claim jumpers and others who interfere with the 
rights of miners are severely dealt with under Canadian 
laws. 

The Tanamar River, a tributary of the Yukon, is 
reported to be rich in gold. Prospectors, bear this in mind. 
I A cablegram from London, 

' England, was recently received 
at Seattle, asking if five thous- 
and men could be provided with 
j outfits. 

; The mean temperature at 

1 Klondyke is: Spring 14° above 
zero ; Summer, 50° above zero ; 
Autumn, 17° above zero ; Win- 
ter, 30° below zero. Frequently 
there are extremes above and 
below these figures. 

In Dawson City it is not unusual to give a pinch of 
gold dust for a long drink. 

The Klondyke fever does not abate, but is 
spreading to all parts of the country. It is epidemic 
in Texas, and in one small town in Indiana five 




461 MItfi 



62 



THE KLONDYKE GOLD FIELDS. 




hundred persons have taken stock in a local company. 
Work with pan and cradle can be carried on during 
May, June and July, but during the winter months 
miners are employed thawing and taking out the frozen 
earth. 

One, F. G. Bowker, of Dawson Cit}^ states there 
was no one tnere to die until less than a year ago, and 
that only three deaths have occurred in the district. 
Takejhis statement with a grain of salt. 

Protestant, Roman Catho- 
lic, and other missions, exist at 
frequent intervals throughout 
Alaska. Churches and chapels 
will soon be in evidence around 
the gold fields. 

Wholesale desertion of sail- 
^/ ^x^ 7 '^' ' ^^^' ^^^™ ships arriving at Alas- 
' ' kan ports, is greatly feared by 

Smootinq the. yu-^ohi^apios owners. 

Mr. Wm. Van Siooten, a mining engineer and 
expert, has immense interests in gold mining all over 
the world. He regards the discoveries in the Klondyke 
region as the most imp07'tant that have ever been made. 

The miners around Dawson City are said to be quiet 
and peaceable. Rowdyism is the exception, although 
gambling is indulged in extensively. There is no 
cheating or swindling, and thieves do not thrive. The 
place is described as containing ' ' the most orderly 
mining community in the world." 

A new overland route to the Klondyke may be 
opened next Spring. It covers about seven hundred 
miles, after leaving Juneau, and runs over a high, level 
prairie. 

No person can buy anything on credit in Dawson 
City. Spot cash for all, and gold dust the chief circu- 
lating medium. 

John Cudahy, the great Chicago speculator, is said 
to be at the head of a $25,000,000 Alaskan enterprise, 
which is to own steamships, mines, and town sites, 
and is to carry on general trading operations. 



TAILINGS. 63 

Clarence Berr}-, of Fresno, CaL, is reported to have 
gained the largest fortune yet made at the Klondyke. 
He prospected for several years without success, but last 
summer he struck the richest pocket yet discovered at 
Klondyke, and recently returned with $135,000. 

All returning miners agree that the best way to 
reach the gold fields is via Juneau. The journey is 
mainly by land, over a snow-covered trail, down numerous 
rivers and across lakes. On an average, the distance, 
650 miles, can be traversed in about twenty-five days. 




PUBLISHER'S NOTE. 



The author has endeavored to present, in brief, 
readable and substantial form, all the information that 
could be obtained up to date. In future issues of the 
" Klondyke Series," he will furnish, as far as possible, 
a chronicle of events showing the development and 
extension of the mining district. Those who desire 
prompt delivery of the next issue should send postal 
cards with name and address, to the publishers, to 
ensure attention. Address, 

THE MARYLAND PUBLISHING, CO., 
P. O. Box 942, 

Baltimore, Md. 



$10.00 for Somebody, 

AT A COST OF ONE CENT. 

Write upon a postal card 5^our guess as to the 
number of copies of this book that will be sold up to 
December 31st, 1897. The Publishers will pay $10.00 
to the person whose guess is nearest to the actual result. 
Name of winner will be advertised in the New York 
Journal, January 15th, 1898. Cards must be mailed 
on or before December i5tli, 1897. Address as above. 

LDt«'J9 




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